CharlieN Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 Hi TPM. I have. A number of questions regarding Chessie's entrances and opening. I will be visiting for the 3rd time, only that on my 2 prior visits, I travelled by train - so I entered through the Lodge entrance.This time we are driving so there's just a few things I'd like to know: 1. How far is the explorer car park from the explorer gate? (I have no idea, I'm afraid) 2. Does the explorer gate allow you to enter the park early and be held behind a holding point somewhere in the park? (I really like being able to enter the park early and have a quick look around trail of the kings before taking my place at the holding point outside Transylvania - so I can take a brisk walk to Vampire!) 3. Quite bizarre question, but is it possible to walk from the explorer gate car park around the park to the Lodge gate. And if so, how long does it take? (As above really, Id really like to avoid the explorer gate if the procedure is to hold us all at the entrance and then prepare for Thorpe-esque havoc in trying to get into the park. In addition, I'm just a big fan of the first impressions you get upon entering Lodge gate) Thanks, to anyone who answers - particularly questions 2 and 3! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 1) Explorer car park is the God awful grass one. The entrance and exit of the car park is via pot holed God awful "roads", it's terrible and not helped by the useless staff members who are hired to work in a car park but seemingly don't understand how parking works... To answer your question though, you'd never be looking at more than a 5 minute walk from the explorer car park to it's relevant entrance. 2) As that entrance spits you out straight into Land of the Dragons literally opposite Dragon's Fury's entrance, they don't open the gates into the park till opening time. 3) As previously stated, entrance and exit to the explorer car park is via terrible mostly destroyed "roads", it would be very foolish in my opinion to even think about parking in the explorer car park, then powering out into oncoming cars. If you are that desperate, why not pay a tenner and park in the express parking car park, located to the left of the main entrance? To get there enter the coach park/express car park entrance, pay your money and you are now parked right next to your beloved Lodge Gate entrance. Saves your legs too! I parked in the explorer car park once, never again. It's 10 pounds or bust for me, which just gives me even less reason to visit Chessington these days. Roodie and CharlieN 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieN Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 13 minutes ago, Mega-Lite said: 1) Explorer car park is the God awful grass one. The entrance and exit of the car park is via pot holed God awful "roads", it's terrible and not helped by the useless staff members who are hired to work in a car park but seemingly don't understand how parking works... To answer your question though, you'd never be looking at more than a 5 minute walk from the explorer car park to it's relevant entrance. 2) As that entrance spits you out straight into Land of the Dragons literally opposite Dragon's Fury's entrance, they don't open the gates into the park till opening time. 3) As previously stated, entrance and exit to the explorer car park is via terrible mostly destroyed "roads", it would be very foolish in my opinion to even think about parking in the explorer car park, then powering out into oncoming cars. If you are that desperate, why not pay a tenner and park in the express parking car park, located to the left of the main entrance? To get there enter the coach park/express car park entrance, pay your money and you are now parked right next to your beloved Lodge Gate entrance. Saves your legs too! I parked in the explorer car park once, never again. It's 10 pounds or bust for me, which just gives me even less reason to visit Chessington these days. Thanks for the reply Mega-lite. I'm assuming it's just a machine for the express car parking money? (I hope so, the less Chessie staff interaction, the better.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 Sadly not I'm afraid, you give your money to a member of staff and they give you the ticket to get out later as they let you in. Glad I could help. CharlieN 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeah Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 2 hours ago, CharlieN said: Hi TPM. I have. A number of questions regarding Chessie's entrances and opening. I will be visiting for the 3rd time, only that on my 2 prior visits, I travelled by train - so I entered through the Lodge entrance.This time we are driving so there's just a few things I'd like to know: 1. How far is the explorer car park from the explorer gate? (I have no idea, I'm afraid) 2. Does the explorer gate allow you to enter the park early and be held behind a holding point somewhere in the park? (I really like being able to enter the park early and have a quick look around trail of the kings before taking my place at the holding point outside Transylvania - so I can take a brisk walk to Vampire!) 3. Quite bizarre question, but is it possible to walk from the explorer gate car park around the park to the Lodge gate. And if so, how long does it take? (As above really, Id really like to avoid the explorer gate if the procedure is to hold us all at the entrance and then prepare for Thorpe-esque havoc in trying to get into the park. In addition, I'm just a big fan of the first impressions you get upon entering Lodge gate) Thanks, to anyone who answers - particularly questions 2 and 3! Do you have a Merlin pass? If so, ask to go to the Merlin car park at Explorer gate. It's free, it's right next to the entrance, it's gravel instead of grass and you get your own bag check so you don't have to queue forever. I've entered at about 9:45 and been let through with no holding point that I saw. It's quite a walk from one to the other so I would suggest maybe getting there at about twenty to, to give yourself some time to walk over to Trail of the Kings. I may be wrong though and there may be a holding point somewhere. If you don't have a MAP I'd say just go lodge. CharlieN 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted September 3, 2017 Report Share Posted September 3, 2017 If you want to ride Dragon Falls and Peeking Heights before the area retheme, you will need to be quick as both will be closing on Sunday 10th September. Falls will eventually reopen next year as Tiger Falls, however Peeking Heights will be going extinct pognoi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 3, 2017 Report Share Posted September 3, 2017 Do we know if there will be any new rides to replace Peeking Heights? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshuaA Posted September 3, 2017 Report Share Posted September 3, 2017 I think the Tiger Enclosure (correct me if I'm wrong) will take up a lot of space so I doubt we'll see another flat squeezed in? Peeking Heights was kinda unpopular and sort of a lightweight for the park anyway, god 90% of the time I visited I forget it existed.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 3, 2017 Report Share Posted September 3, 2017 36 minutes ago, Coaster said: Do we know if there will be any new rides to replace Peeking Heights? The physical space where Peeking is will be used for tiger enclosures. The plans showed no new rides for Mystic East. That doesn't rule outthe potential for a new ride elsewhere, but personally I'd he surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 3, 2017 Report Share Posted September 3, 2017 Who honestly cares that Peeking Heights goes? The ridership was so low in general it's not exactly going to take anything out of the day... Was utter turd for it's duration... JoshuaA and Han30 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 9 hours ago, Benin said: Who honestly cares that Peeking Heights goes? The ridership was so low in general it's not exactly going to take anything out of the day... Was utter turd for it's duration... Utter brill to operate though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 10 hours ago, Benin said: Who honestly cares that Peeking Heights goes? The ridership was so low in general it's not exactly going to take anything out of the day... Was utter turd for it's duration... I've ridden worse, Peeking was fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 I'd much rather have Peeking Heights than Liseberg's ferris wheel to be fair. I still have nightmares about that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPC Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 It looked and rode alright but the capacity was absolutely abysmal. There were less than 20 people ahead of me in the queue and the queue took around 20 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 43 minutes ago, TPC said: It looked and rode alright but the capacity was absolutely abysmal. There were less than 20 people ahead of me in the queue and the queue took around 20 mins. That's just post 2009 Chessington, not fully Peeking's fault. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPC Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 To be honest, it took more like 25 mins, with 15 people ahead of me and this was in 2015. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pognoi Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 4 hours ago, Mark9 said: Utter brill to operate though. me and you need to have a chat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 5 hours ago, Mark9 said: Utter brill to operate though. Throughput races between Griffins and Peeking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 4, 2017 Report Share Posted September 4, 2017 8 hours ago, Mega-Lite said: That's just post 2009 Chessington, not fully Peeking's fault. Oh its completely Peekings fault. Poorly designed piece of rubbish by Fabbri. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 5, 2017 Report Share Posted September 5, 2017 Slag off Peeking all you like but don't slander the great name of Fabbri. Still the best drop towers ever forged in steel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 5, 2017 Report Share Posted September 5, 2017 Peeking really is trash though. Any ride that can slip out of control with a holding break on has seriously messed up in the design process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 5, 2017 Report Share Posted September 5, 2017 The point I was trying to make was that Chessington in the more recent years made a bad throughput ride even worse. When I worked there, with a good operator and a host that was giving it all they had, Peeking was less of an operations nightmare. As we all know in recent years the park has stopped hiring people who care and have stopped pushing throughputs, thus making it worse than it used to be. As a flat ride in my personal opinion it's far better than crap like Boretex and modern Samurai, that's just my opinion though. I'd even struggle to call it a bad Ferris wheel actually, I've ridden worse examples. If you are looking at it strictly as a piece of ride hardware though, then yeah I agree with you Mark, it was a bit crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flipper Posted September 5, 2017 Report Share Posted September 5, 2017 8 hours ago, Mega-Lite said: Slag off Peeking all you like but don't slander the great name of Fabbri. Still the best drop towers ever forged in steel! Quantum. Fabbri. Made so badly it's themig fell off. The end. Sorry but Fabbri are pretty crap. Granted Detonator is OK to ride but it's still a pretty poor design ride. The fact they had to uncover its motors to protect it from overheating says a lot about that; and the fact it leans slightly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted September 5, 2017 Report Share Posted September 5, 2017 The areas being changed? wow, I'm so behind on news. Tiger Falls sounds terrible but I guess if the ride will get a new lease of life it's what it needs. I wonder if it'll be themed properly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega-Lite Posted September 5, 2017 Report Share Posted September 5, 2017 2 hours ago, Flipper said: Quantum. Fabbri. Made so badly it's themig fell off. The end. Sorry but Fabbri are pretty crap. Granted Detonator is OK to ride but it's still a pretty poor design ride. The fact they had to uncover its motors to protect it from overheating says a lot about that; and the fact it leans slightly... Oh I forgot about Quantum, that's fantastic too. 2 of the best flats out there, who cares if some bits fall off? Rush doesn't. pluk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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